Lure of being a social media chef means youngsters forgoing classic training, Michelin star cook warns
Scroll through your timeline of choice and it won’t be long until you land on a video posted by a social media chef trying to send their recipes viral.Such is the popularity of cooking videos that everyone from Michelin star masters to self-taught beginners like Brooklyn Beckham are setting up tripods on their kitchen counters to capture the perfect cut, cuission or crust on their culinary creations.But the lure of social media could, according to some industry figures,be causing young cooks forgo the formal training of a catering college.Will Murray, who worked at the double Michelin-starred restaurant Dinner by Heston before opening his own critically acclaimed venue, Fallow, said social media cooking videos sometimes stretch the boundaries of what is possible.“Social media has helped people get into cooking.
Do I think that’s necessarily the best way to do it? I don’t.The difference right now is there is so much more cooking content online that people look to get their knowledge elsewhere other than old school methods, the traditional gateways into it,” he said.“If people think it’s easy because they saw it on Instagram, that might set someone up for a hard entry into a kitchen.”Murray said that some of the apprenticeships are finding it difficult to find young people who want to do the traditional cookery courses: “A lot of apprenticeships are struggling up and down the country to get young talent.I don’t think cooking is any different, it is hard to get people inspired.
”Murray is a judge for the San Pellegrino academy and said these competitions help forge people’s skills.Applications for the academy are open, and the Roux scholarship winner has just been announced.Twenty-eight-year-old Harrison Brockington, head chef and owner of Gather in Totnes, Devon, won the prestigious award with a Mediterranean-inspired “Surf & Turf” dish and won a three-month apprenticeship at a three-star Michelinrestaurant.Murray said: “We’ve put quite a few people through competitions at Fallow.It’s a proper pressure cooker, it teaches you to work at such a high level and for young people to be exposed to that is brilliant.
”It has been easier for him than other restaurant owners to hire chefs; his restaurant has 1.5 million followers on Instagram and the team is constantly posting videos of their interesting recipes, including a whole cod’s head bathed in sriracha butter.Emily Roux, Michelin-starred chef at Caractère restaurant in Notting Hill, is the daughter of celebrity chef Michel Roux Jr.She is also judging the San Pellegrino awards and is involved in the Roux scholarship.She said the competitions help test skills in the real-life and high-pressured environments of cooking for other chefs, and allow cooks to learn skills they may not have had before.
“It is also a great life lesson, it is putting a little bit of pressure on yourself going through a competition.They’re never easy.I think they help with skills, you can learn from the other candidates there, there is a lot of waiting involved when things are being judged, and a lot of chatting.”The new MasterChef judges Anna Haugh and Grace Dent have complained about the proliferation of unrealistic cooking videos on TikTok in the buildup to the new series.Haugh said in a recent interview: “Some of the stuff you see on social media, it breaks my heart as a chef, where I’m like: that’s not true, that can’t be done.
”Dent added that her feelings on social media recipes “have become much more nuanced recently”.She said: “On one level, I’m absolutely aware that a lot of those recipes don’t work, because I’ve been foolish enough to try them.Like, this cake only takes two and a half minutes, it only needs bicarbonate of soda, a frying pan and an egg.”
‘It’s iconic worldwide – it’s special to skateboard there’: the South Bank skatepark turns 50
The undercroft at London’s Southbank Centre has been a haven for skateboarders since the 1970s. Now a new exhibition is celebrating its contribution to culture – and communityShane O’Brien first skated at London’s Southbank Centre in the summer of 1975, at the age of 10. But before he could call himself a “Southbanker”, a regular of the famous spot, he had to face a certain ritual. In 1983 he was launched into the Thames by senior skaters and could finally consider himself one of the crew. Now in his 60s, O’Brien calls the South Bank his second home
Seth Meyers on Kash Patel: ‘He has resting “run for your lives” face’
Late-night hosts dug into the allegations of FBI director Kash Patel’s excessive drinking, Donald Trump’s Iran war struggles and some questionable math by RFK Jr.On Wednesday evening, Seth Meyers relished more details from a shocking Atlantic report from this weekend detailing alleged excessive drinking and erratic behavior by the FBI director, Kash Patel. According to more than two dozen current and former FBI officials, Patel was known to drink to the point of obvious intoxication, and many people expected him to be fired for his unreachability and impulsivity.“Generally speaking, you don’t want to hear that the country’s top law enforcement official is known for having freak-outs, you know?” the Late Night host said. “When you’re the head of the FBI, you’re supposed to be calm and level-headed
Post your questions for Melanie C
Some former girl- and boyband stars spend a lifetime trying to escape the image that made them famous. Not Melanie C. Since the Spice Girls debuted 30 years ago this summer (What’s that sound? Oh, it’s just the unadulterated violence of mortality) she has never shied away from her past as Sporty Spice. Her ninth album, Sweat, leans firmly into it. Led by its gauntlet-throwing title track, these are work-bitch bangers for the gym, the dancefloor – inspired by her pre-Spice raving youth – and quite possibly the bedroom, sung by a triathlon fiend who forged a reputation as a world-renowned DJ
Make universal access to culture a priority | Letters
A V&A everywhere. It’s not such a silly idea (Editorial, 17 April). Labour’s postwar conviction that good things should be available for everyone led to the founding not only of the Arts Council but also the NHS. Universal basic healthcare: a good idea, right? What about universal basic culture?I can see a new era of cities thriving with agency to imagine and create the conditions in which more inclusive, diverse, devolved, responsive and self-driving culture emerges – regardless of income. The UK can be a global creative powerhouse
Jimmy Kimmel on Trump’s Iran negotiations: ‘His word is as good as the gold commode he sits on’
Late-night hosts reacted to Donald Trump’s indefinite extension of the Iran ceasefire as his cabinet fumbles negotiations over the unpopular war.“The White House is not a fun place to be right now,” said Jimmy Kimmel on Tuesday evening. “The strait of Hormuz is like a Toys ‘R’ Us - nobody has any idea if it’s still open or not.”A Trump-imposed ceasefire between the US and Iran was scheduled to end on Wednesday night, and on Monday, Trump said it was “highly unlikely” he would extend it. “He said if a deal wasn’t reached, Iran was going to be bombed like Kash Patel at the Poodle Room in Vegas,” Kimmel quipped, referring to a bombshell report from the Atlantic on the FBI director’s alleged excessive drinking and unexplained absences
Vanessa’s a pillar of the hiking community | Brief letters
Your report (Campaigners seek listed status for historic trig points that mapped Britain, 16 April) didn’t mention the Vanessa trig point – Vanessa being a corruption of the Venesta company, which made cardboard tubes into which the concrete for the pillars was poured. These were designed for less accessible places, mostly in the Scottish Highlands and Islands. I was never less than half exhausted when I met one.Margaret SquiresSt Andrews, FifeThe Guardian’s journalism is independent. We will earn a commission if you buy something through an affiliate link
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